🤝 Partners
Meet the research groups behind DART and the organisations in our advisory group.
Partners
Research partners
KU Leuven – DistriNet, Campus Gent (project lead)
KU Leuven, DistriNet Campus Gent
DistriNet@Gent is based at the KU Leuven Technology Campus Ghent and is part of the Faculty of Engineering Technology. It has extensive experience in setting up and running innovation projects together with companies. Its close ties with the faculty keep the research practice-oriented and aligned with industry needs.
In recent years, DistriNet@Gent has become part of the larger DistriNet research group in Heverlee. Its mission is applied research and technology transfer in distributed systems (privacy, IoT, cyber-physical systems) and software security. A central research theme is the development and assessment of software systems with advanced security and privacy requirements.
Within DART, the group contributes expertise in monitoring and analysis of distributed systems, network traffic and system telemetry, security of IoT and cyber-physical environments, cybersecurity standards, and the use of (generative) AI to automate and support security tasks. It builds on earlier TETRA projects such as Secure Smart Buildings, CoAssurance and VERBOTEN.
Team: Vincent Naessens, Jorn Lapon, Tom Cordemans
Website: iiw.kuleuven.be/onderzoek/distrinet/
Vrije Universiteit Brussel – Software Languages Lab (SOFT)
VUB, Software Languages Lab
The Software Languages Lab at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has a strong track record in security and reactive systems. The lab has deep expertise in event-driven architectures, rule-based systems and declarative programming, applied to modelling and analysing complex, dynamic software systems. SOFT is a member of the Cybersecurity Research Flanders programme.
Within DART, SOFT translates this expertise into rule systems for detection and playbooks for automated response. It builds on earlier work such as the course Reactive Security for Reactive Systems, and on projects in which end users without a programming background configure systems declaratively (SWAMP, FLAMENCO). SOFT also has ongoing research on event-based and AI-assisted application security testing.
Team: Jens Nicolay
Website: soft.vub.ac.be
Target groups
DART addresses Flemish SMEs and non-profit organisations facing higher expectations around detection and incident response, from NIS2, cyber insurance requirements and supply chains:
- Service providers and integrators: cybersecurity and IT providers that want to offer detection and response to SMEs in a scalable, cost-effective way.
- Organisations with in-house or hybrid security operations: already monitor their environment, but need efficient, automated approaches with limited overhead.
- Organisations in the awareness phase: have no detection and response yet and want to understand what they need and what to ask of their suppliers.
Advisory group
Service providers and integrators
- Able (AXS Guard)
- BLU3
- E-Bo Enterprises
- Guardiant Cyberdefense
- Quant ICT
- Resilient Security
- Secudea
Organisations with in-house or hybrid security operations
- CAW Oost-Vlaanderen
- COMmeto
- Enkryptify
- Heynen
- Nextensa
- Politiezone Gent
- Sint-Trudo Ziekenhuis
- Televic Rail
Dissemination partners
- Agoria
- Cyber Security Coalition
- LSEC – Leaders in Security
Get involved
DART is interested in organisations that want to:
- Gain insight into feasible detection and incident response for their context
- Understand their NIS2 obligations around monitoring, incident handling and reporting
- Share practical experience and challenges from the field
- Contribute use cases and help validate guidelines, templates and demonstrators
- Join hands-on seminars and workshops
- Get early access to interim results
Want to join?
If your organisation would like to join the DART advisory group, please contact us:
Benefits of joining
Practical insights
Understand what effective, proportionate detection and response looks like for SMEs
Compliance made concrete
Translate NIS2 and related frameworks into concrete technical and organisational measures
Expert community
Connect with researchers, service providers and organisations facing the same challenges
Hands-on workshops
Take part in advisory group meetings, hands-on seminars and early testing of results